The present invention concerns a setting mechanism for an analog display watch having functions which are to be mechanically controlled separately. For example, this involves correcting the time and correcting the date of the month. The analog display watch may be mechanical or electronic.
In most cases, such mechanisms comprise a stem which can be moved into three positions, comprising a neutral position and two active positions. Mounted on the end of the stem is a sliding pinion (castle wheel) which is free to move along the stem but which is non-rotatable relative to the stem. In order to define the axial position of the sliding pinion with respect to the axial position of the stem, the mechanism further comprises a system of two levers which are generally referred to on the one hand as the pull-out piece or setting lever and on the other hand as the return bar or yoke. The pull-out piece is rocked by the stem and acts on the return bar which in turn shifts the sliding pinion in the opposite direction to the movement of the stem.
Such mechanisms are efficient but they make it necessary to cut the sliding pinion, and the cutting operation requires a high degree of precision.
It is for this reason that it has already been proposed that the pinion should be fixed with respect to the stem. However, in the proposed construction, the pinion can only engage with a single gear and such a mechanism can therefore only be used to control a single function, namely, setting the time.